Disco Snr has finally been transferred to the tiny hospital back in the redneck town he and my monster-in-law live in, so Disco and I are very much looking forward to a quiet long weekend at home getting some much needed R&R. Time for us to step back and let some of the other useless relatives step up and do something for a change.

Of course, I'm hoping that the Brisbane unit market picks up sooner than later so I can sell without making a loss. Between the rundown nature of my old unit block and the building defects problems of my current place, the financial stress hasn't been a fun experience.

Wish you luck

Sold my unit here in Canberra - ten years old... Cleared $1300 (there are no numbers missing there) but at least I'm no longer LOSING* money every month

We are in a really weird situation here - houses are losing value slower than most other places except Hobart and Adelaide - units are falling faster than most other places except Darwin and Brisbane. There is an oversupply of units for current rental and market conditions - and hundreds more in construction - and the changes to finance make "investment properties" less attractive

*I retired last year 'cos the job was killing me. The unit was costing me about $500~600 a month which reduced my tax burden a bit - but overall I was losing money. In the right circumstances you sell after 10 years, pay some capital gains tax, and that's where you make your money. Not in the current climate. I'd hate to work out how much the property cost me overall - but right now - I'd have been better off never having had the unit. I don't think I can actually afford to be retired - but I won't know till finances settle down long term

I did the maths for what it would cost us to pay rent in an apartment versus the deprecating value, and I worked out that even if the apartment's value drops 40% in 10 years, we'd have still been better off buying than to continue renting. Because either way you've got to pay to live.

Though I keep reminding myself that it's not an investment but a home. If I worry too much about things like resale value, I'm gonna send myself up the wall in paranoia. Thankfully I like where we live and we're in a decent place in a centralish area. That's what matters now*.

Got a temp job with the state government atm. My contract either ends on Friday, or it may be extended until the end of February or maybe even until the middle of March. It's looking a LOT like I'm not going to find out which one it is until this Friday.

Someone just today described the guy in charge of making these decisions as "a cunt", so yeah. This is a whole lot of fun right now.

0 x

BorisBC wrote:Pro tip - if you have to spew in a car, spew down the (inside) front of your shirt. Trust me, it's a lot easier to clean spew off yourself than the interior of a car.

Disco Snr only lasted a couple of days back in his home town, before being transferred back to the hospital he was in initially.

He is now carrying infections in his left knee, left tibia and right foot and they believe these are all secondary infections. CT Scan on the abdomen failed to produce any answers, so yesterday he went back under for a transesophageal echocardiogram so they could look at the heart more closely as a possible location for the primary infection... currently waiting on results.

Depending on these results, if it looks like a long period of hospitalisation, we are hoping to have him transferred here. At the moment he is in a regional hospital, and the only visitors he is getting is his wife every second or third day and us on weekends. He's becoming quite depressed and frustrated. We have a major referral hospital here, I work on the same grounds so am able to be there for doctor's rounds each day, pop in to see him whenever needed and Disco would also be able to see him daily - his parents are also here, as is one of his sisters and his other sister is only 30 minutes away. So not only would he be in a far better hospital with better doctors and better services, but he'd have more social/emotional support. Unfortunately, this has sent Disco's mum into major bitch mode, as she's more focused on what's convenient or inconvenient for her, and less focused on what's in the best interests of her husband's recovery.

Sorry to hear about Disco Snr having issues again especially with the distance between them and you.

Good on you guys though for looking into transferring him to your area so that he's got better support from all parties. We did the same with mum when she got breast cancer. I was lucky to have space free for mum and dad to move in and the RBWH at Brissie is definitely better than the Gold Coast Hospitals for sure. Ironically, mum was also in bitch mode though that was probably a case of the chemo drugs affecting her.

I hope you guys manage to get Disco Snr back to good health without exhausting yourselves too much. I was still exhausted a year after mum and dad moved out. Working during the day and being a carer at night took its toll on me.

I won't rant on too much about my current issues. The fuckwit who lives across from me was issued a contravention notice for constantly parking on common property in a spot that blocked garage ingress/egress for another lot. He had the nerve to say he should be allowed to do it because the other lot he's blocking also parks in front of their garage. Inconsiderate fuckwit!

Did an online coding interview today. First time I've done something like that. It's weird because the kinds of questions they ask are like doing a coding exam at university - more to show off coding skills than anything related to my 12 years of employment. Guess I'll find out if my results* are good enough early next week.

*I know how I did on each question because it provided me with immediate feedback. What I don't know is whether that's good enough for the company.